Used winch is frustrating me need help.

[whissiswheelin]

I have 2 used Warn M8000's. The one that I installed on my truck worked by directly hooking to battery the the day that I installed it. A couple months go by and I finally get a control box together (homebuilt) but now the winch doesnt work. I cleaned up the armature from my spare and the inside drum of the original and mix matched the 2 and added some dielectric grease. Still the winch doesn't spin when connected by jumper cables and no spark! how can I correct this problem? I could clean up the matching armature if that will make the difference but I dont know for sure. There is a very little to no spark when I cross the terminals on the winch. a-f1 and a-f2 both before and after the switch...

edit. Brushes look like new still the only thing I can see is there is no insullation around the windings on the stator any more. every thing else looks good....

 

[a31ford]

Most winches built today, use a field based on "PM" (permanent magnet) , older winches use field coils much like old car starters.

I'm going to assume that the winch you are speaking of uses PM, there is only one circuit in these winches, BUT, 4 brushes, they (the brushes) are wired two pairs of parallel ( positive being one pair, negative being the other ). the winch goes forward or reverse by switching what lead is connected to what terminal, (terminal 1 with positive , and terminal two with negative, usually is play out) switch the wires (1 with neg, 2 with pos) and the winch pulls in).

Where I live,frost is an issue with winch brushes, the frost will "pucker up" between the brushes and the commutator on the armature, causing a weak arc if the wires are teased on the terminals, HOWEVER, this can also be caused by a "dead spot" on the armature.

It only takes one commutator segment to go dead and this will cause the exact issue you are speaking about.

The Test: there are 2 ways to test for this, one, if you can move the armature JUST SLIGHTLY 1/8 of one turn, this would move the dead spot, if you go a 1/4 of a turn, you simply moved the dead spot to the next brush.....

Two, open the brush end of the motor, and test each "pair" of commutators with a multimeter for "conductivity" ( 200 ohms setting, looking for "up scale" on an analog meter, or a very low numrical reading on a digital meter (ex: 0.03).
If ANY of the pairs (sorry, pairs are directly across the commutators from oneanother), if ANY pairs show "Open" (no reading) the armature is a throw away (it's cheaper to replace it than re-wire it).

Greg

 

[whissiswheelin]

Thanks that makes perfect sense.

 

[LIMA BEAN]

Thanks that makes perfect sense.

Good on you man, most would have said huh whaaaaah?

 

[whissiswheelin]

HAHA Yeah, I have been screwing around with it for a couple days and have read everything I could to figure out how to fix it myself. after taking it apart a dozen times cleaned it up and failed I finally gave in and decided to take it to the repair shop for an estimate.
Here is a great link that I came across this afternoon with loads of info.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=U4TBoJB2zgsC&pg=PA476&lpg=PA476&dq=warn+armature+inspection&source=bl&ots=MVPOTtPNrk&sig=200AyLBGdR-Tay_gxL1VZGKhpY0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PhglUazeI4mkigK47IDoDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CFIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=warn armature inspection&f=false

 

[whissiswheelin]

So the electrician figured out that the rust between the brush holder and the drum was causing grounding problems as well the positive lead screw from one of the brushes was stripped and not contacting enough. charged me 50 bucks for .6 hours labor...FCKN A DOGGY!